North Korean leader’s uncle ‘eliminated’

The uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been “eliminated” over committing “criminal” acts and leading a “counter-revolutionary faction.”

State news agency KCNA reported Monday that Jang Song-Thaek has allegedly built a power ‘base’ to challenge the leadership of the state.

The agency carried a statement by the ruling Workers’ Party saying that it had “eliminated Jang and purged his group, unable to remain an onlooker to its acts any longer.”

“The Jang Song-Thaek group… committed such anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts as gnawing at the unity and cohesion of the party,” it said.

“Prompted by his politically-motivated ambition, he tried to increase his force and build his base… Jang and his followers committed criminal acts baffling imagination and they did tremendous harm to our party and revolution,” the statement added.

Speculations about Jang raised last week when South Korea’s intelligence agency said that the North Korean leader’s powerful uncle has apparently been removed from all his posts including the ones as the vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, North Korea’s top military body, and department head of the Workers’ Party.

South Korean lawmaker Jung Cheong-Rae said on December 3 that according to the National Intelligence Service (NIS) briefing, Jang was “recently ousted from his position and two of his close confidantes — Ri Yong-Ha and Jang Soo-Kil — were publicly executed in mid-November.”

Jang was often pictured beside Kim and referred to as the unofficial number-two of the country.

Jang, who is the husband of deceased Kim Jong-il’s sister, Kim Kyong-Hui, was considered as influential in bolstering Jong-un’s hold on power in a tricky transition period after the death of his father.